Real to Me
by Maran Zelde
Summary: When the dentist returned from his trip to the Barrier Reef, no one expected him to bring back a little clownfish. No one except Flo...


A/N: This just popped into my head one morning and I had to get it out. I know that the retelling of the movie from different POV's has been done many times, but I've never seen one with Deb's POV. It's very fun and fascinating to write from the perspective of a fish that thinks her reflection is her sister. The writing style is simple because I wanted to write Deb's voice, and I don't think she would use big words or flowery speech.   
Insert the usual disclaimer here. I don't own Finding Nemo.   
  
  
  
It was Sunday morning, and all we could talk about was how glad we were that the dentist was coming back. He had been gone for four days, on a trip to the Great Barrier Reef, we'd heard. Barbara, the receptionist, fed us while he was away, but the thing was . . . She skimped on the food. There was never enough to go around. Being hungry made us irritable, and we fought a lot. Bloat suffered the most, I think. He even started eating algea like Jacques to satisfy his big appetite.   
But now he wouldn't have to, because Dr. Sherman, or the boss as we sometimes call him, was coming back. He fed us four times a day, and often gave us more than we needed.   
"Isn't it exciting, Flo?" I said to my sister.   
"Yeah, I can't wait to finally eat a good meal."   
Flo looks just like me. We're twins you see. We didn't actually come from the same egg, but our eggs were right next to each other, and we hatched at the same time. Ever since then we've been really close. Oh, we had other brothers and sisters, but Flo is something special. She's so easy to talk to, and no one understands me like she does. Sometimes we even finish each other's sentences.   
Anyway, we fish are early risers, and so we had to wait for about three hours until the dentist came to the office. Gill, our leader, said that we should all go back to sleep, but we were all too hungry, although Gurgle said that he was so hungry he didn't feel hungry anymore.   
"I'm so hungry, _I'm_ about to start eating algea!" Flo announced.   
"You can try it, Deb, but there's not much left," said Bloat. Flo sighed a little. The others often get us mixed up, but usually they think Flo is me, and not the other way around. It's wierd.   
That morning was one of the longest we'd ever known. But the dentist finally came, a few minutes after Barbara. He was carrying a red box with a white lid.   
"Hi, welcome back," greeted Barbara. "How was your trip?"   
"It was great. The reef was beautiful."   
"I'm sure it was. What've you got there?"   
But before he answered they went into the receptionist's office where we couldn't hear them as well.   
"I wonder what's in the box?" I asked.   
"It better be food," said Bloat.   
"If it is, it's probably human food," Peach pointed out.   
"I don't care, right now I'll settle for _toothpaste_."   
At last the boss came out of the office with the can of flakes. He bent his big face down to look at us, then he sprinkled a big pinch of food into the water. We scrambled to catch the floating flakes in our mouths, bumping into each other in our eagerness.   
"You guys are really hungry today. Barbara, did you remember to feed the fish?" he asked, adding another pinch to the tank.   
"Yes," she said a bit defensively. "Every day."   
"Hm. Maybe I'll get one of those time release capsules next time," he muttered.   
After breakfast, we went off to different places to relax and digest our meal. Gill hid in his skull, Peach was stuck to the wall, Jacques was in his diver helmet, and . . . Well I'm not sure where everyone else was, but Flo and I were floating in one of the corners. Somehow we got to arguing again. Flo was saying that we needed another fish in our tank. I told her that was crazy talk, because Gill was having enough trouble trying to get the eight of us out of the tank and into the ocean. But Flo said that maybe the new fish would be able to help us escape. I'm starting to think she's psychic. But then I'd be psychic too, because we're twins. I don't really know how those things work.   
Anyway, all of a sudden we heard a loud splash. At first I was afraid that Gill was trying to jump out again. But when I turned around I saw a little clownfish with three white stripes. It looked like Flo had got her wish.   
He was swimming around all crazy, bumping into walls. I worried that he would hurt himself. But then he stopped and calmed down a bit, staring out into the waiting room. Then he slowly swam to the other side to look at the dentist's office. The dentist had been setting up a patient, but he turned and bent his head toward the tank.   
"Hello little fella!" he said. His loud voice and huge face startled the fish, and he swam into one of the plastic barrels to hide. The dentist laughed. "Beauty isn't he? I found this guy struggling for life out on the reef, and I saved him. So, has that Novacaine kicked in yet?" As the boss walked back toward the patient, the little fish slowly swam out of the barrel. I watched him nervously back up toward the treasure chest, which popped open behind him.   
"Bubbles!"   
Bubbles--the yellow tang I mean--sped past the fish and stuck his fins in the small stream of bubbles that came out, babbling all the while. Then the lid closed, and he hugged it protectively. "My bubbles," he said, looking back at the clownfish. Now, I can't think of anyone less scary than Bubbles, except for maybe Peach and Gurgle. But for some reason, the new fish was afraid of Bubbles, and he backed away from him. He stopped near Peach, who flopped the top half of her body over his back to explain that Bubbles likes bubbles. But the young fish--he couldn't have been older than six or so--was scared of her too, so he hid in Jacques' diver helmet.   
In a way, though, I can understand why he was so afraid. Even Flo and I were nervous and shy when we first came there, and we were a lot older than this kid was. It was then that I finally decided to swim over and talk to him. Someone had to tell this little guy that everything was gonna be okay! Flo stayed behind, saying that she'd rather wait until he calmed down to talk to him. So I set off alone, but soon I was joined by Gurgle, Bloat, and Bubbles. As we came closer to the helmet, the new fish shot out in a panic. Bloat caught him gently in his big fin.   
"Slow down little fella. There's nothin' to worry about."   
"Aw, he's scared to death," I said. Poor little guy. He looked so pitiful. Now that I was close to him, I noticed that one of his fins was a lot smaller than the other. It reminded me of Gill's injured fin; it was even on the same side.   
"I wanna go home," he wimpered. "Do you know where my dad is?"   
Peach leaned back from the wall. "Honey, your dad's probably back at the pet store," she said.   
"Pet store?" he asked, as if he'd never heard of one before.   
"Yeah, you know, like, I'm from Bob's Fish Mart," said Bloat.   
Each of us told him where we were from. Me and Flo, we were hatched in a big building where they breed fish. We grew up in a plain, boring tank--not at all like the one in the dentist's office. Then when we were about twenty, the human workers put us in a little plastic tank with a cheap filter. They put the tank in a box, and they put that box inside of another box. I don't know how long we were in there, but it had to have been at least a day. Our tank was bumped around and moved a lot, and the next time we saw daylight, we were in the dentist's office! But I didn't tell the new guy all that. All I said was, "Mail order!"   
Gurgle put his fin around the little striped fish. "So, which one is it?"   
"I'm from...the ocean."   
I had heard the dentist say that he had got the fish from the reef, but I didn't make the connection until then. Neither did Gurgle.   
"Ah, the ocean..._the ocean!_ AAH!" He pulled away from him, staring at his own trembling fins. Bubbles looked scared too, but not nearly as much as Gurgle did. "He hasn't been decontaminated yet! Jacques!"   
The cleaner shrimp opened the door of his helmet. "_Oui?_"   
"Clean him!" shouted Gurgle, pointing to the clownfish.   
"_Oui._" He swam over to the fish, moving his tiny legs very quickly.   
"Ocean!"   
"_Oo, la mer. Bon._" _La mer_ is French for the sea. I've learned a lot of French from Jacques. He spun the fish around until he looked like an orange blur, cleaning him with his mouth. Yeah, it is pretty disgusting, but it does the job. When he finished, the fish glowed brightly.   
"_Voila._ He is clean."   
"Wow, the big blue," said Bubbles after Jacques had gone back into his diver helmet. "What's it like?"   
The orange fish seemed unsure of what to say. "Um, big...and blue?"   
"I knew it," Bubbles said seriously.   
I decided to try my fin at making the new fish feel at home. "Kid, if there's anything you need, just ask your Aunty Deb, that's me!" I led him over to Flo, who was now floating a few inches away. "Or if I'm not around you can always talk to my sister, Flo."   
"Hi, how are ya?" said Flo.   
"Don't listen to anything my sister says," I added to the new kid. "She's nuts!" I laughed. Flo knew I was kidding, but I'm not sure if the little fish did. I was about to tell him that I was joking, when Peach tried to say something with her face pressed against the glass.   
Bloat rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. "Can't hear ya, Peach."   
The starfish pealed her face from the wall. "I said we got a live one!"   
We swam up eagerly to get a better look. I tell you, I missed watching the dental procedures almost as much as I'd missed having enough to eat. They were so fascinating, although Gill and Jacques didn't get into them as much as the rest of us did. Peach especially loved commentating and naming the different techniques.   
"What do we got?" I asked her.   
"Root canal, and by the looks of those x-rays, it's not gonna be pretty."   
"Rubber dam and clamp installed?" asked Bloat.   
"Yep."   
"What did he use to open?" asked Gurgle.   
"Gator-Glidden drill. He seems to favor that one lately."   
Flo was swimming right in front of me, as usual. She always got in my way whenever I tried to look out of the tank; it was so annoying!   
"I can't see, Flo," I told her angrily. But whenever I tried to see around her, she copied my exact movements. She wanted to play, but I was in no mood. I think we would have gotten into a fight if Gurgle and Bloat hadn't. Before I knew it I was hearing shouts of:   
"Hedstrom!"   
"K-flex!"   
"Hed_strom!_"   
I winced as Bloat quickly inflated behind me, and turned to watch him drift helplessly away.   
"There I go," he muttered. "A little help. Over here."   
I rolled my eyes. "I'll go deflate him," I said, leaving the others to enjoy the root canal.   
  
  
  
A/N: It got annoying to keep writing "the little fish," "the clownfish," etc. instead of Nemo, but Deb didn't know his name yet, so what are you gonna do?   
And yeah, the "put that box inside of another box" passage was a reference to TENG. I love that movie.   
Fun fact: My four year-old brother used to think that Bloat's name was Bob's Fish Mart. He might even still think that; I'm not sure. 


End file.
